Ethical Consequences of the Gnostic Union

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

There’s always the assumption that mystical gnosis will result in an elevated ethical state on the part of the gnostic. Given that there’s plenty of controversy over the ethical stance of someone who is concerned above all with their own salvation, I find this lazy acceptance a little puzzling. It’s ...

Does Mars have Value?

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

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Knowing Himself

Saturday, January 21st, 2012

The captain of the Costa Concordia is accused of cowardice and dereliction of duty in the aftermath of the ship's sinking. In the Guardian (where no behavior is too appalling to find a defender) Bruce Hood, therefore steps up to his defence with the too-usual line: "Schettino will undoubtedly be ...

How we got Rights

Sunday, December 19th, 2010

In a review (“Utopia Lost” Democracy #19, 2011) of The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History by Samuel Moyn (Harvard University Press, 2010) Yehudah Mirsky begins by noting that “many claim that these rights have a long ancestry in the history of human thought” and that Moyn’s preliminary historical survey shows ...